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DPW starts bidding for Puerto Rico Dump’s final closure
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Posted on May 24 2009
The Department of Public Works has started soliciting sealed bids for construction of the Puerto Rico Dump’s final closure.
DPW Secretary Diego B. Songsong in an interview with Saipan Tribune Friday said the Puerto Rico Dump’s final closure project has a total of $11.2 million funding coming from the U.S. Department of Interior, Office of Insular Affairs.
“Hopefully within five weeks we can determine a contractor if everything goes well,” Songsong said.
The secretary said design for the project has been completed while permitting is on the final stages.
DPW Solid Waste technical consultant Steve Hiney said since 2003 the Puerto Rico Dump has not received garbage, but it’s never been closed to federal regulations.
“So what we are doing here is complying with the federal regulations as it come to closure,”Hiney said.
Under the project, the objectives are the following:
-Final cover section with a hydraulic conductivity;
-Drainage layer to assist in removing liquid from above the low hydraulic conductivity layer;
-Vegetative growth to reduce erosion and provide a park-like setting;
-Treat gases generated by landfill decomposition;
-Storm water control system; and
-Slope revetment to protect slopes from storm wave action and storm run up.
Hiney said the intent is to the greatest extent possible have a park-like setting when it is done.
“There’s maybe some potential for us to put some benches but that’s going to be determine as we move to the process,” he said.
Hiney said when everything is completed, DPW is going to monitor and manage the project for 30 years.
In 2006, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cited the closure of the Puerto Rico Dump as one of its Pacific environmental enforcement accomplishments for the year.
U.S. EPA said the dump has been a source of water pollution for over 50 years and the final closure will greatly reduce the dump’s adverse impacts to the surrounding ocean ecosystem.
